Same Marine unit hit in '83 headed to Beirut

U.S. Marine barracks hit by suicide truck bomber in 1983, killing 241 Americans

The ground combat element for the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) headed to Beirut to assist in the evacuation of Americans is BLT 1/8 – the same battalion massacred Oct. 23, 1983, by a Hezbollah suicide bomber, killing 241.

"This is truly surreal," said Bob Newman, retired Marine gunnery sergeant. "I was the Marine Corps' liaison to the FBI forensics team sent to the V Corps morgue in Frankfurt in October 1983 to ID all the Marines and sailors killed in the bombing. We had all the bodies on steel gurneys in there, the walls covered with brown paper bags from the commissary we had cut up and taped to the walls covered with their names, etc. I rather vividly remember being in the morgue with the FBI guys and seeing faces I recognized staring up at me with sightless eyes."

Newman said his sources in the BLT unit are hoping Hezbollah provides them an excuse for payback.

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According to the USMC: "The MEU is a flexible force that can devastate the enemy in small-scale, low-intensity conflicts with the speed and precision of a special operations force. It can overwhelm threats with the soul-crushing intensity of a Marine Air Ground Task Force that features several rifle companies, tanks and the uncompromising power of a reinforced helicopter squadron."

The 24th MEU completed a seven-month tour in Iraq in February 2005. It is composed of three elements, in addition to its command: BLT 1/8, HMM-365 (Reinforced) and MEU Service Support Group 24.

The 24th MEU also participated in Arabic language courses offered at the small unit level aboard the USS Iwo Jima during the MEU's Certification Exercise, held April 27 through May 12.

Throughout the MEU, certain Marines were sent to 30-day Arabic survival courses taught by local instructors from Coastal Carolina Community College – a crash course for small unit leaders to grasp a better understanding of the language so that they could pass the knowledge on to their fellow Marines during lulls in training.

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